Parliament of Western Australia Hon George Strickland

PARLIAMENT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA HON GEORGE STRICKLAND Condolence Motion Legislative Assembly Thursday, 15 August 2019 Reprinted from Hansard Legislative Assembly Thursday, 15 August 2019 ____________ GEORGE JOSEPH STRICKLAND Condolence Motion MR M. McGOWAN (Rockingham — Premier) [9.01 am]: — without notice: I move — That this house records its sincere regret at the death of Hon George Strickland and tenders its deep sympathy to his family. Today we acknowledge the passing of George Strickland, a much beloved Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. I acknowledge his family and friends who are in the gallery today: his wife Helen Strickland; his children Tony, Debbie and Denise, and their partners; his grandchildren; and all other family members and friends who are here today. On behalf of the government, I would like to pass on our condolences. After looking over George’s biography and the words that he spoke, it seemed he lived his life without any great burning desire to be a member of Parliament or to be involved in politics. However, that is not to say he was not incredibly civic minded. It is clear that he had a passion for organisations that served the Western Australian community. What is more, he had a habit of leaving them better than when he found them. George Joseph Strickland was born in October 1942 in St Kilda, Victoria, to George Strickland and Ellen Margaret Sykes. He arrived in Western Australia just a few years later. He received his education at Forrest State Primary School, Wesley College and the Western Australian Institute of Technology, where he obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physics. For the younger of us in the room today, that institution is now known as Curtin University. He then joined the education department in 1962 as a teacher. He taught manual arts at Scarborough from 1962 until 1973. He had a short break to study for his Diploma of Education at the Western Australian College of Education in 1974, before returning to the classroom to teach mathematics at Lockridge Senior High School and Hampton Senior High School. It was during this time that George became incredibly involved in his community. In fact, his parliamentary biography stops trying to list all his involvements because there were too many. He was passionate about Little Athletics, stamp-collecting, Star Swamp Reserve and so many more local groups and clubs. He mentioned in his final speech to Parliament that this was something he got from his father. He noted that at one point in time his father was on 36 or so committees, which gave George Strickland Jr his interest in public life. The rest came from his experience of contributing on cadet camps as a teacher. Inevitably, someone who is so involved in public life gets sucked into public affairs. From 1981 until 1990, George Strickland served on the City of Stirling council, including two years as mayor. In 1988, he was approached by local business people to run for the Liberal Party in Scarborough. He went on to win that election in 1989, beating Graham Burkett. He served the people of Scarborough until 1996, until that seat was abolished. He then represented Innaloo until 2001. George is best known for the role that he played as Speaker of this place from 1997 until 2001, the second term of Richard Court’s Liberal government. It is fair to say that he was held in fairly high regard for the way he conducted himself as Speaker of the Parliament. Despite being the last Speaker to wear the wig, George was actually a fairly independent Speaker and a true reformer. Many of the features of the Parliament are innovations of George: the granting of a right of reply to persons adversely referred to in the house; improvements to the estimates system; the system of standing committees; pecuniary interest declarations; delegated legislation; and time management. They were some of reforms that were introduced in 1998 and 1999 by the committee that George chaired. Behind the scenes, George modernised the Parliament outside the chamber by establishing the Parliamentary Services Department and the management executive committee, and even bringing in financial planning and human resources expertise for the organisation. George was Speaker when I first arrived here in 1997 and during my first four years as a first-term backbencher. I remember him well. He was very authoritative in the Chair. He did not yell. He did not stand and scream or any of those sorts of things. He used a quiet authority to get his way. I recall that on those occasions when somebody was misbehaving, he would stand up and say nothing. The whole place would go quiet as he just stood and said nothing. He would stand there, looking at everyone for 30 seconds, and then he would sit down and everything would calm down. That was a certain technique that he used. I recall that he used to take a particular interest in a member of Parliament who sat next to me whose name was Bill Thomas. I sat in the far corner of the chamber over there. Bill was a very gentle, lovely fellow, but he would be prone to outbursts. George would look at him until he fell silent. I remember one time that Bill referred to a Liberal minister as a snake in the grass, at which time George called him to order and insisted that he withdraw the remark, which Bill did. Bill then referred to the same minister as a serpent in the herbaceous flora, which somehow escaped censure from George. Reprinted from Hansard [1] George liked the Parliament. He knew the standing orders very well. I thought his knowledge of the standing orders was outstanding. Of course, when you first arrive here, you really have no idea what is going on. Understanding the standing orders was one of his great strengths. He was quite a bipartisan fellow, and in his quieter moments, he would express not a disdain for politics, but that he was a little bit above the hurly-burly, if people understand what I mean. He gave me some advice when he was leaving his seat of Innaloo. This is something that he said to me that proved not to be correct. The Labor candidate for the seat of Innaloo was Hon John Quigley. George said to me, “Young Mark, you’re going to regret getting John Quigley into this Parliament.” He told me, “You’re going to regret John Quigley. He’s going to be wild and uncontrollable and you’ll really, really hate it.” All George’s advice on everything else proved to be pretty prescient, but he was incorrect on that one. I liked George. He was a decent man and a great contributor to Western Australia. I know he was much loved by his family and he loved his family in turn. George had a great career in Parliament. He was a reformer and he did very well; he rose to very high office. George had a fortunate life and he contributed greatly. This place is very fortunate for having had him here. Vale George Strickland. MRS L.M. HARVEY (Scarborough — Leader of the Opposition) [9.10 am]: I rise to contribute to this condolence motion for my friend Hon George Strickland, AM—1942 to 2019. George Strickland was a family man, community activist and for 12 years a strong-minded member of the Legislative Assembly who served as a very effective Speaker of this house. He was born in Victoria in 1942, but grew up in South Perth, after in 1946 his family moved to Western Australia, where his father worked as a professional engineer. He was educated at a local primary school and at Wesley College from 1953 to 1959. With his father serving as a local government councillor, who at one stage sat on 36 committees, he grew up with an ethic of service and an interest in public affairs. George Strickland trained as a teacher and began his career in 1962. He taught manual arts at Scarborough Senior High School until 1973, when he undertook further study at the Western Australian Secondary Teachers College. He also qualified with a Bachelor of Applied Science in physics. He went on to teach mathematics at Lockridge Senior High School in 1975 and at Hampton Senior High School in 1985. At the same time, he was serving the community in such areas as Little Athletics WA and as officer of cadets at Scarborough high school from 1965 to 1974. He was chairman of the Riley Reserve Advisory Committee from 1978 until 1999. George’s community service ethic saw him elected as a City of Stirling councillor and he served the city’s constituents from 1981 to 1989. His fellow councillors elected him deputy mayor and he served in the role from 1984 to 1986. He served as mayor from 1986 to 1988. He also served as chairman of finance at the City of Stirling. During his tenure at the City of Stirling, George committed to setting the city free from the practice of securing loans to fund capital works and put together a 10-year plan to make the City of Stirling debt free in the interests of delivering lower council rates to the constituency. George was well on the way to achieving that goal when he left council for Parliament; the city was effectively debt free in 1993. George was nominated as the seventh Honorary Freeman of the City of Stirling on 23 February 2000 in recognition of his service to the residents of the City of Stirling.

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